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Publications

Publications by Luís Filipe Antunes

2019

Breaking MPC implementations through compression

Authors
Resende, JS; Sousa, PR; Martins, R; Antunes, L;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SECURITY

Abstract
There are many cryptographic protocols in the literature that are scientifically and mathematically sound. By extension, cryptography today seeks to respond to numerous properties of the communication process beyond confidentiality (secrecy), such as integrity, authenticity, and anonymity. In addition to the theoretical evidence, implementations must be equally secure. Due to the ever-increasing intrusion from governments and other groups, citizens are now seeking alternatives ways of communication that do not leak information. In this paper, we analyze multiparty computation (MPC), which is a sub-field of cryptography with the goal of creating methods for parties to jointly compute a function over their inputs while keeping those inputs private. This is a very useful method that can be used, for example, to carry out computations on anonymous data without having to leak that data. Thus, due to the importance of confidentiality in this type of technique, we analyze active and passive attacks using complexity measures (compression and entropy). We start by obtaining network traces and syscalls, then we analyze them using compression and entropy techniques. Finally, we cluster the traces and syscalls using standard clustering techniques. This approach does not need any deep specific knowledge of the implementations being analyzed. This paper presents a security analysis for four MPC frameworks, where three were identified as insecure. These insecure libraries leak information about the inputs provided by each party of the communication. Additionally, we have detected, through a careful analysis of its source code, that SPDZ-2's secret sharing schema always produces the same results.

2018

Witness Hiding Without Extractors or Simulators

Authors
Souto, A; Antunes, L; Mateus, P; Teixeira, A;

Publication
SAILING ROUTES IN THE WORLD OF COMPUTATION

Abstract
In a witness hiding protocol the prover tries to convince the verifier that he knows a witness to an instance of an NP problem without revealing the witness. We propose a new look at witness hiding based on the information conveyed in each particular instance of the protocol. We introduce the concept of individual witness hiding (IWH) and prove that zero-knowledge protocols for classical problems like HAM are not IWH. On the other hand, we show that all FewP problems have an IWH protocol. Finally, by introducing a Kolmogorov string commitment protocol we can show that all FewP problems have an IWH protocol that is zero-knowledge relative to an oracle.

2019

Heart Sounds Classification Using Images from Wavelet Transformation

Authors
Nogueira, DM; Zarmehri, MN; Ferreira, CA; Jorge, AM; Antunes, L;

Publication
PROGRESS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, EPIA 2019, PT I

Abstract
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death around the world and its early detection is a key to improving long-term health outcomes. To detect possible heart anomalies at an early stage, an automatic method enabling cardiac health low-cost screening for the general population would be highly valuable. By analyzing the phonocardiogram (PCG) signals, it is possible to perform cardiac diagnosis and find possible anomalies at an early-term. Accordingly, the development of intelligent and automated analysis tools of the PCG is very relevant. In this work, the PCG signals are studied with the main objective of determining whether a PCG signal corresponds to a “normal” or “abnormal” physiological state. The main contribution of this work is the evidence provided that time domain features can be combined with features extracted from a wavelet transformation of PCG signals to improve automatic cardiac disease classification. We empirically demonstrate that, from a pool of alternatives, the best classification results are achieved when both time and wavelet features are used by a Support Vector Machine with a linear kernel. Our approach has obtained better results than the ones reported by the challenge participants which use large amounts of data and high computational power. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

2019

Secure Provisioning for Achieving End-to-End Secure Communications

Authors
Sousa, PR; Resende, JS; Martins, R; Antunes, L;

Publication
AD-HOC, MOBILE, AND WIRELESS NETWORKS (ADHOC-NOW 2019)

Abstract
The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is raising significant impact in several contexts, e.g., in cities, at home, and even attached to the human body. This digital transformation is happening at a high pace and causing a great impact in our daily lives, namely in our attempt to make cities smarter in an attempt to increase their efficiency while reducing costs and increasing safety. However, this effort is being supported by the massive deployment of sensors throughout cities worldwide, leading to increase concerns regarding security and privacy. While some of these issues have already been tackled, device authentication remains without a viable solution, specially when considering a resilient decentralized approach that is the most suitable for this scenario, as it avoids some issues related to centralization, e.g., censorship and data leakage or profit from corporations. The provisioning is usually an arduous task that encompasses device configuration, including identity and key provisioning. Given the potential large number of devices, this process must be scalable and semi-autonomous, at least. This work presents a novel approach for provisioning IoT devices that adopts an architecture where other device acts as a manager that represents a CA, allowing it to be switched on/off during the provisioning phase to reduce single point of failure (SPOF) problems. Our solution combines One Time Password (OTP) on a secure token and cryptographic algorithms on a hybrid authentication system.

2019

A Survey on Using Kolmogorov Complexity in Cybersecurity

Authors
Resende, JS; Martins, R; Antunes, L;

Publication
ENTROPY

Abstract
Security and privacy concerns are challenging the way users interact with devices. The number of devices connected to a home or enterprise network increases every day. Nowadays, the security of information systems is relevant as user information is constantly being shared and moving in the cloud; however, there are still many problems such as, unsecured web interfaces, weak authentication, insecure networks, lack of encryption, among others, that make services insecure. The software implementations that are currently deployed in companies should have updates and control, as cybersecurity threats increasingly appearing over time. There is already some research towards solutions and methods to predict new attacks or classify variants of previous known attacks, such as (algorithmic) information theory. This survey combines all relevant applications of this topic (also known as Kolmogorov Complexity) in the security and privacy domains. The use of Kolmogorov-based approaches is resource-focused without the need for specific knowledge of the topic under analysis. We have defined a taxonomy with already existing work to classify their different application areas and open up new research questions.

2020

Profiling IT Security and Interoperability in Brazilian Health Organisations From a Business Perspective

Authors
Rui, RJ; Martinho, R; Oliveira, AA; Alves, D; Nogueira Reis, ZSN; Santos Pereira, C; Correia, ME; Antunes, LF; Cruz Correia, RJ;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF E-HEALTH AND MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS

Abstract
The proliferation of electronic health (e-Health) initiatives in Brazil over the last 2 decades has resulted in a considerable fragmentation within health information technology (IT), with a strong political interference. The problem regarding this issue became twofold: 1) there are considerable flaws regarding interoperability and security involving patient data; and 2) it is difficult even for an experienced company to enter the Brazilian health IT market. In this article, the authors aim to assess the current state of IT interoperability and security in hospitals in Brazil and evaluate the best business strategy for an IT company to enter this difficult but very promising health IT market. A face-to-face questionnaire was conducted among 11 hospital units to assess their current status regarding IT interoperability and security aspects. Global Brazilian socio-economic data was also collected, and helped to not only identify areas of investment regarding health IT security and interoperability, but also to derive a business strategy, composed out of recommendations listed in the paper.

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